ToKCast

Brett Hall
  • 0.0 (0)
  • Filosofía

This is a podcast largely about the work of David Deutsch and his books ”The Beginning of Infinity” and ”The Fabric of Reality”.

  1. 26 ago

    Ep 267: The Orthogonality Thesis is Moral Relativism. (Response to Sam Harris on AI).

    This is in response to episode 489 of Sam Harris' "Making Sense" podcast - in a section only available via subscription. I have clipped the approximately 60 seconds worth of material I am narrowly responding to for fair use in this commentary. The case unpacked is, roughly, that morality can be disconnected from (is orthogonal to) reason broadly is no more than a restatement of moral relativism - and hence false. Morality and science are about objective reality so cannot be “orthogonal”. Moral progress goes hand-in-hand with reason broadly and any “sufficiently advanced” intelligent system would not only realise this, they must understand it to make unbounded, rapid progress.

  2. 20 ago

    Ep 266: Facts, Fantasy and Critical Thinking

    A analysis in Popperian style of Candace Owens' "mode" of debate and discussion, approach to evidence and thinking and a comparison to the more mainstream evaluations of this debate.

  3. 15 ago

    Ep 265: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 14 "The Ends of the Universe" Part 2 The Omega Point

    All about the distant future. What does cosmology tell us about the fate of the universe, life and intelligence in some ultimate sense? Frank Tipler's The Omega Point Theory is the primary focus, but throughout we consider the centrality of The Turing Principle for predictions about the future of the cosmos, Roger Penrose's "Conformal Cyclic Cosmology" and some of Freeman Dyson's ideas. Timestamps and Chapters: 0:00 – Introduction: Longevity, Immortality, the Singularity & the Omega Point 5:50 – Recap: The Four Strands, Knowledge & the Multiverse 8:20 – Frank Tipler’s Omega Point Theory Introduced 9:00 – Anthropic Principles (Weak, Strong & Final) 10:30 – The Turing Principle as the Key to the Omega Point 1 3:40 – Modern Cosmology Challenges: Expanding Universe, Dark Energy & Heat Death 20:20 – Cosmological Models That Allow Unlimited Computation (Big Crunch Conditions) 22:00 – Tipler’s Rejoinders & the Case for Eventual Collapse 24:00 – Computers Near the Omega Point & Mutual Implication with the Turing Principle 30:00 – Defending the Strong Turing Principle & the Comprehensibility of Reality 35:00 – Infinite Thoughts, Virtual Reality & Colonisation Deadlines 37:00 – Roger Penrose’s Conformal Cyclic Cosmology (CCC) 43:00 – Freeman Dyson’s Ideas & Infinite Computation in an Expanding Universe 46:50 – Properties of the Omega Point: Omniscience, Omnipotence & Omnipresence 1:15:00 – The Omega Point as “God”, Resurrection & Virtual-Reality Heaven 1:18:50 – Critique of the Technological Singularity (Kurzweil) & Mind Uploading 1:22:00 – The Limits of Far-Future Prediction (Ancient Builder Analogy) 1:25:00 – Conclusions & Takeaways: Take the Turing Principle Seriously

  4. 30 jul

    Ep 264: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 14 "The Ends of the Universe" Part 1

    What do our best explanations tell us about the ultimate ends of the universe? What is the difference between forming a world view about any one of the four strands (evolution, epistemology, quantum physics or computation) versus taking all four of them seriously?

  5. 4 jul

    Ep 263: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 13 "The Four Strands" Part 4 - and final.

    How do the Four Strands of the Fabric of Reality - Quantum Physics, Computation, Epistemology and Evolution by Natural Selection hold together? What does taking them each seriously and all of them together seriously? Is it possible to construct a worldview without one of them or based on a single one alone? What do they imply about free will and consciousness? Doesn't making progress require us to assume them false? All this and more.

  6. 4 may

    Ep 262: David Deutsch's "The Fabric of Reality" Chapter 13 "The Four Strands" Part 3

    This episode is heavily focussed on Dawkin's "Selfish Gene" explanation of Darwin's evolution by natural selection. Obviously there are readings from the relevant part of this chapter from The Fabric of Reality but I augment that with sections from "The Selfish Gene" itself as well as "The Beginning of Infinity" as well as a larger portion of me providing additional unpacking and exposition.

  7. 23 abr

    Ep 261: Objective Morality II

    Do not destroy the means of error correction. A deep unification of knowledge akin to unifying quantum theory with computation to create the theory of quantum computation. David Deutsch will be known for not merely forging the basis of quantum computing but also a new basis for morality and epistemology. I explain much of that here. "What should we do next?" is a question with an answer that is right or wrong, good or evil, better or worse. All existing moral frameworks philosophers debate are theories that can serve as criticisms of "what to do next". Morality is as objective as domain as mathematics, physics or anything else. Relativism, like it's sister philosophy dogmatism is false.

  8. 5 abr

    Ep 260: I don't believe it!

    Response to a question about my discussion with  @drpeterboghossian  here: https://youtu.be/72vhtT0pFmA?si=hAx1kPho4DkLkBFN This is yet another way of coming at a critique around the concept of "belief" or those who profess to "believe" and so on using Deutsch's approach that knowledge is "information with causal power". I explore that for around the first 40 mins. If you're in a hurry, skip to the final 15 or 20 minutes where I get to responding to the meat of the matter in the question itself.

Ver todo (267)

Acerca de

This is a podcast largely about the work of David Deutsch and his books ”The Beginning of Infinity” and ”The Fabric of Reality”.

Información

  • Creador
    Brett Hall
  • Años de actividad
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodios
    267
  • Clasificación
    Apto
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2021 All rights reserved.
  • Mostrar sitio web
    ToKCast

También te podría interesar